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ATHENS — Georgia may have looked worthy of playing in a BCS bowl game with its down-to-the-last-play, instant-classic loss in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday, but the Bulldogs will head instead to the Capital One Bowl against Nebraska on Jan 1.

It’s the third trip to the Orlando game under coach Mark Richt, the first since a 24-12 victory over Michigan State at the end of the 2008 season. Kickoff at Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Fla., is set for 1 p.m. on ABC.

“If we weren’t going to be in a BCS game, this is the location we wanted to be,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said. “Traditionally our fans have loved the locale that they could get to closer. The weather’s going to be fantastic.”

The Capital One Bowl has the first selection of SEC teams after the BCS. The SEC made an effort even before Alabama’s 32-28 win Saturday against Georgia for the league championship to protect the game’s loser from falling too far down the bowl pecking order, but Capital One Bowl CEO Steve Hogan said Georgia (11-2) was the team it wanted.

“We had an opportunity to get an 11-win division champion a few yards away from a national championship,” Hogan said. “The most important thing to our committee was Georgia deserved this trip. We’re fortunate to have a team that’s really of BCS quality. We believe we’re going to give them a BCS quality bowl.”

Nebraska (10-3) was demolished by Wisconsin 70-31 on Saturday in the Big Ten championship game. Among FBS teams, only Houston gave up more points in a game this season in a 72-42 shootout to SMU. The Cornhuskers gave up 539 rushing yards and 640 total yards .

The Cornhuskers, ranked 23rd in the AP poll, are returning to the Capital One Bowl for the second straight year after losing to South Carolina 30-13 last season. Nebraska is 95th in the nation in rushing defense and eighth in rushing offense.

Georgia and Nebraska have met only once previously on Dec. 20, 1969 in the Sun Bowl, a 45-6 Cornhuskers win.

Alabama coach Nick Saban said it would be “a crying shame” if the Bulldogs didn’t go to one of the five BCS bowls. They were stopped five yards short of the end zone in a 32-28 loss to deny Georgia a trip to Miami for the national title game in perhaps the most memorable SEC title game ever. Instead, the BCS will include No. 12 Florida State, No. 15 Northern Illinois, No. 21 Louisville and unranked Wisconsin.

Georgia finished No. 7 in the final BCS standings. Florida is the second SEC team that will play in a BCS bowl. It automatically qualified after finishing No. 3 in the BCS and is going to the Sugar Bowl. Only two teams from the same conference can go to BCS bowls.

“There’s obviously no question that we’re deserving of a BCS bid,” McGarity said. “There’s no question that we played great the last half of the season and just to see the way we laid it on the line (Saturday) and proved that we’re right there along with the best in college football.”

Richt was born in Omaha, Neb., before moving to Colorado on his seventh birthday.

“It’s kind of personal for me,” Richt said. “My mom and dad grew up in Nebraska and all my cousins on that side of the family are big ’Husker fans. They like the Dawgs, too. They call themselves the CornDawgs actually. It’s a combination of the Cornhuskers and the Dawgs.”

Georgia players who put so much into getting to Miami for the national title will have to settle for Central Florida instead of South Florida.

“We’ve just got to swallow the pill and get over it,” cornerback Damian Swann said Saturday. “I don’t think we want to go wherever we’re going, but we’re going to go there and whoever we play, we’re just going to have to make a statement.”

Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said the Bulldogs were hurting, but he expected the team will get back up .

“It will be the last game that the seniors play in a Georgia uniform so that will mean something, but we’ll get them back don’t worry about that.”

Linebacker Mike Gilliard said he spoke to end/outside linebacker Cornelius Washington in the postgame locker room Saturday about the seniors “enjoying each other’s company. We’ve got the last couple of weeks we have together so we’re just going to enjoy it to the fullest.”

Notes

Georgia is No. 5 in the USA Today coaches’ poll and No. 6 in The Associated Press poll. Richt gets a $100,000 bonus if Georgia finishes in the top five after the bowl games in either the coaches or AP polls, according to his contract. He gets $100,000 for reaching the Capital One Bowl ($25,000 more than Outback, Cotton or Chick-fil-A). He would have received $300,000 for reaching the BCS title game and $500,000 for winning it. ... Georgia was fifth in the Harris and coaches’ polls, but 11th ranked by the BCS computers. ... Richt voted Georgia No. 3 on his USA Today coaches’ ballot after Notre Dame and Alabama. He put Florida No. 4 and Oregon No. 5. The final regular-season ballots are released to the public each year. Vanderbilt’s James Franklin had Georgia the highest of any coach at No. 2. Baylor’s Art Briles and Washington’s Steve Sarkisian ranked Georgia lowest at No. 11.